Thursday, December 29, 2022

December Will Be Magic Again by Kate Bush—The Murfin Winter Holidays Music Festival 2022-‘23

December Will be Magic Again form Kate Bush's 1979 British TV Christmas special.

It’s hard to believe that the Winter Holidays Music Festival has been running for years and we never before got around to Kate Bush, the revered British singer song writer, dancer, and producer.  Her unique four octave voice, brilliantly original lyrics, and performance style integrating her vocals, instrumental talents, and modern dance made her one of the biggest stars in the United Kingdom.  Far less known in America, she is something of cult favorite with indie musicians and art rock fans

                               Kate Bush as a young star.

Born as Catherine Bush on July 30, 1968 in Bexleyheath, Kent, in the greater London metropolitan area, she began writing original music at 11 years old and released her debut album, The Kick Inside at just 19 years old.  It included her first British #1 hit Wuthering Heights.  She released only 10 original albums through 2011, all but one of them ranking in the top five.  Sixteen of her singles were in the U.K. top twenty.

Dancing in an award winning video for Wuthering Heights.  Modern dance became integral to her live performances.

Bush only toured once for six weeks in Britain and Europe, in 1978, in an elaborate concert/performance art piece she wholly conceived.  It exhausted her and she could never be coaxed back out on the road again.  She appeared in sporadic television broadcasts, specials, and charity performances like Comic Aid.  After her first four albums there were long gaps between new recordings including four years between 1985 and ’89 and six years between 2005 and ’11.  She attributed the gaps to prioritizing her family and denied that her perfectionism was to blame.

She remains an intensely private person and has a reputation as something of a recluse.  None-the-less she has been showered with honors for her bold work including the Brit Award for Best Female artist, the Ivor Novello Awards, and has been nominated for the Billboard Music Awards, the Grammy Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Rolling Stone ranked Hounds of Love #68 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and in 2021 Running Up That Hill was also listed at #60 in the magazines 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. She is listed #46 on VH1s 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll. She was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honors for services to music.

Bush is enjoying new fame with the re-release of Running Up That Hill which was featured on the TV spook series Stranger Things.

Bush was discovered by a whole new generation, most of whom assumed she was a new artist when Running Up That Hill was featured in season 4 of the cable series Stranger Things this past May.  Re-released as a single it shot to #1 in Britain—a 43 year gap since her last chart topper—and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.  The success has spurred revived interest in her body of work on both sides of the Atlantic.

Today we feature December Will Be Magic Again from her breakthrough year 1979 TV Christmas special. 

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